Tailgating Essentials

College Football starts next week. I am SO excited! It is my favorite time of year!!
As much as I enjoy watching the games, my favorite part of football is the tailgating food.
I am the "Tailgating Queen". I love to make and plan our tailgates every week.



Today I am going to share our ultimate list of tailgating essentials!
It comes from many years of tailgating at college and NFL games.

Card Table

Table Cloth

I love the collegiate patterns from ShopGoChic.com (shown above)

They have lots of school colors to choose from.

If you don't want to spend a lot - this generic football field table cloth is perfect!

Paper Plates

Paper Towels

Napkins

Forks/Knives/Spoons

Plastic Cups - 9oz (wine) and 16oz (beer & soda)

Condiments - ketchup, mustard, mayo

Ziplock Bags (for leftovers)

Trash Bags 

Two coolers - one for food and a Separate cooler with clean ice for drinks

I get a lot of questions about how do I keep foods warm for the tailgate. 

I love this Pyrex Portable 4-Piece Set. It works great!

Microwave the hot/cold pack and it will keep your food warm for hours!

We occasionally grill in the parking lot before a night game. 

We usually grill burgers and hot dogs.

This is our favorite burger recipe: 

http://www.plainchicken.com/2010/09/mortons-million-dollar-burgers.html

We also always use a charcoal starter for the grill.

We used Match Light charcoal once, and we were all burning up lighter fluid during the game.

We never made that mistake again!

Check out our post on how to use the charcoal starter. There is a video too!

http://www.plainchicken.com/2014/05/grilling-101-how-to-use-charcoal-starter.html

We use the Weber 10020 Smokey Joe Charcoal Grill grill for the parking lot.

It works great!!

Those are all of our tailgating essentials. 

Now it's time to move on to the start of the party - the food!!

Here are our favorite tailgating recipes:

"Crack Dip" - Cheddar Bacon & Ranch Dip

This is the dip that basically started the blog way back in 2007. 

It is SO good! HIGHLY addictive!

Cream Cheese Sausage Balls
SO good! You can make these ahead of time and freeze them for later.

Bacon & Brown Sugar Crackers

Sausage Biscuit Bites

Mississippi Sin Dip

Chocolate Dipped Peanut Butter Pretzel Bites

Make sure to stop by the blog every Friday from now until the Super Bowl.
There will be a new tailgating recipe every Friday!

Also, follow our Tailgating Pinterest Board for tons of great recipes!

Follow Plain Chicken's board Taligating Recipes on Pinterest.